How to run an online chess tournament

The thing a corporate organizer should understand: people play chess online without you. The value of your tournament is the meeting. So online belongs as a supplement or a fallback, not a replacement.

Online tournaments run on playing platforms that offer a closed event for a team or club. The principle is the same everywhere:

• the organizer creates a team or club and invites people by link;
• inside it they create the tournament: system, time control, rounds, start time;
• the platform pairs the rounds, runs the clocks and keeps the table;
• results are available the moment the last round ends.

What to check when choosing: whether a Swiss system is available and not only an arena, whether the event can be closed to outsiders, whether your control and number of rounds are supported, and what the standings look like - you will be showing them to the players - Swiss tournaments on Lichess, where to play online.

People play faster online than over the board: three hours in front of a screen is harder than three hours in a hall.

• 3+2 or 5+3. Rapid online is rare - the attention does not hold.
• Five to seven rounds. About an hour, an hour and a half at most.
• Swiss system. As in person - nobody is eliminated.
• A firm start time. People are later online than in person: a reminder fifteen minutes before is compulsory.

A separate format is the arena: pairings are made continuously over a fixed period and players join and leave freely. Convenient for a company event - nobody waits for latecomers - but it has none of a tournament's rigour.

About the controls - time controls in chess.

The central problem online: there is no way to verify that a person is playing unaided. Platforms use automated detection, but it works after the fact and is not perfect.

What reduces the risk:

• A short control. Using an engine in blitz is physically harder.
• A closed event. Team members only, no anonymous entries.
• Video. A shared call with cameras on works for a company tournament.
• Sensible expectations. At a friendly event keep the prizes token: the higher the stake, the stronger the temptation.

The honest conclusion: if the result of the tournament decides something, play in person. Online is good where the process matters more than the absolute purity of the result - fair play over the board.

• A distributed team. When gathering physically is impossible - tournaments at a tech company.
• A qualifying stage. Online selects the finalists, the final is played live.
• A league between in-person events. It keeps interest alive in the gaps.
• An intercity match. Club against club from another city.
• Teaching. Events inside a chess school, where the coach can see the pupils' games.

The hybrid version, where some play in the room and others join online, is covered separately - hybrid tournaments.